Anisotropic polymerization shrinkage behaviour of liquid-crystalline diacrylates

Anisotropic polymerization shrinkage of liquid-crystalline acrylates has been studied. In order to investigate the changes occurring on the microscopic scale, X-ray diffraction was combined with density measurements. As a result it was shown that at high polymerization temperatures the polymerization shrinkage in the direction of the molecular orientation was higher than the shrinkage in the directions perpendicular to the molecular orientation. Subsequently the shrinkage obtained on the microscopic scale was compared with the results obtained on the macroscopic scale. The behaviour was interpreted in terms of the molecular structure and the packing density within the systems.